This post is part 3 in a cursory overview of some historical ideas about breasts. Look for my health enhancing breast butter coming out soon!

Ayurvedic It seems the Eastern view of the breast might have been much different from the Western view. While this article did not reference ancient views, it gave the overall idea that the breast is an object of nourishment belonging to the woman and that breast imbalances or cancer are, in part, a result of failing to recognize the power of the breast and failing to nourish oneself (Devani, 2017). In addition to the emphasis here and in Northrup’s writings, I offer the idea that the breast is equally about power not just nurturing and nourishing. I can’t help but recall a favorite slogan from my breastfeeding years “I make milk! What’s your super power?!” Whether a woman has breastfed or not, her breasts are symbolic of her power to sustain life!

Northrup Dr. Christine Northrup adheres to this Eastern view of the breast as a symbol of nourishment, not just in the power to nourish life, but as a symbol of a woman’s power to nourish herself. She notes how the current patriarchal, medical model is one of looking for problems with the breasts Mercola & Northrup, 2013). This is something I’ve seen myself quite often - women wondering what their risk factor is and viewing the breast largely as something problematic. It’s either too small or too big or too saggy or too milky with a strong let-down or too dry with an (often mythical) inability to breastfeed. It’s a cancer risk, a health risk. It needs to be painfully squashed on a regular basis to be sure it doesn’t nefariously take over your life. And you better check it regularly yourself too, keeping in mind how dangerous it is, how likely it is to hurt you.

Honestly, before reading this particular interview with Dr. Northrup, I’d never thought of BSE as something negative. I just love what she had to say around this. Total lightbulb moment for me! I’ll quote a portion of the written interview between Mercola and Northrup below.

"There was a huge study done in China that showed that teaching women how to examine their breasts did not decrease their mortality at all," she says. "In fact, all it did was increase the number of biopsies for benign disease. So, there's no data that breast self-exam helps with anything."

That said, she still encourages and recommends a monthly or weekly "self-love breast massage," but not to specifically look for anything, or with the expectation of finding something wrong. Instead, she suggests just gently and lovingly massaging your breasts and up under your armpit, where the lymph nodes are located, while taking your Epsom salt bath. The best time to do it is just after your period, when you have the least amount of hormonal stimulation. "Massage this with love. You're not looking for anything," she says. "The average woman will find something. We know that breast self-exam, or just a woman finding something because she knows her breasts, is just as good as all of these other screenings for finding the fast-growing tumors. See, the problem with screening is it finds the slow-growing ones that may regress or wouldn't go anywhere anyway.

So, for a part of your health, you want to start a practice of bringing your breast home to your chest. Get to know them in health lovingly. Don't use your fingertips, by the way. Use your palm. Otherwise, you're going to feel every little gland and freak out. And then if you do find that you have what's called a fibrocystic disease where your breasts get tender, start eating some kelp tablets, because the iodine really helps that in a huge way.” (Mercola & Northrup, 2013)Knowing the power of the psychneuroimmunological pathways in our bodies doesn’t it make vastly more sense to view the breast as something to be nurtured and nourished rather than something to be worried over?

I think the Ayurvedic idea and Northrup’s philosophies hark back to some of the earliest views of the breast, long before the Medieval or Renaissance views. In the infancy of human civilization, long before the advent of patriarchy, “God was a woman” to use the title of a book (Stone, 1976). Art and archeology hailing from that era show us a breast that is honored as the source of nurturing and the nourishment needed to sustain life. The breast was seen as the seat of female power as evidenced by statues of goddesses not just with large breasts, but often with many breasts. The goddess, as the source of power and life, was represented by the image of a woman.

In the creation of my breast butter, and all of the women’s products I’m currently and simultaneously developing, I want to recapture this idea - that our femininity is a source of power and life and to be embraced, not a source of problems to be feared or parts to be shamefully ignored under patriarchal taboos.

Once again, I'm in the process of developing a new product, a wonderful breast butter that enhances breast health and lymphatic flow. I found my research on breast history interesting so here's a bit more... The quotes are awesome!

Late 1600’s By this era, ideals had changed and breasts were beautiful, though not always in their natural form, and only as sex objects for male pleasure. This quote from The Ladies Dictionaryin 1694 lays out the ideal:

Breasts that hang loose, and are of an extraordinary largeness, lose their charms, and have their Beauty buried in the grave of uncomeliness, whilst those that are small, plump and round, like two ivory globes, or little worlds of beauty, whereon Love has founded his Empire, command an awful homage from his vassals, captivate the wondering gazer’s eyes, and dart warm desires into his Soul, that make him languish and melt before the soft Temptation (in Loofbourow, 2011).

Talking about differences and similarities in understanding... all I can say is “Seriously?! We’re still embracing breast ideals from the 1600’s!!?! How antiquated! Women need to wake up!”

In it’s defense, the Ladies Dictionarydid contain some of the first information on breast health for women. Or was it for men?Therefore to reduce those Breasts that hang flagging out of all comely shape and form, that they may be plump, round and smaller, bind them up close to you with caps or bags that will just fit them, and so let them continue for some nights. Then take carrot-seed, plantain-seeds, aniseeds, fennel-seeds, cumin-seeds, of each two ounces, virgin’s honey an ounce, the juice of plantain and vinegar two ounces each. Bruise and mingle them well together. Then, unbinding your breast, spread the composition plaster-wise and lay it on your breasts, binding them up close as before. After two days and two nights, take off the plasters and wash your breasts with white wine and rose-water (in Loofbourow, 2011).

The Ladies Dictionarygoes on to reference ways to make the veins in the breast more pronounced so the male lover may trace them. While many of our breast ideals hark back to this antiquated period, this is one different. Today women are more likely to see their plastic surgeon to have these veins cauterized.

1700’s During the above 1600-1700’s period physicians discovered the lymphatic system and Renee Descartes became the first to propose that imbalances here caused breast cancer, not the “black bile” of unbalanced humors that earlier physicians ascribed to. By the late 1700’s the lymph theory had become the prevailing view (Lukong, 2017). The first radical mastectomies were performed in this era with a crude scythe-like instrument. ​By the 1700’s corsets that nipped in the waist and accentuated the breast were the height of fashion. Something new I learned... not only did the corset produce cleavage, some women wore their corsets and dresses not just with the upper breast showing but also with the nipples out! This seems to have been when the church and society introduced the idea that breasts were evil, an idea that breast feeding moms today still have to counter. The Ladies Dictionary was not so embracing of this trend, “There is always danger in attentively looking upon a Naked Breast, and there is not only a great danger, but a kind of Crime in beholding it with attention in the Churches” (Loofbrourow, 2011).

Hi All,

I'm in the process of developing an herbal breast butter for enhanced lymphatic flow and breast health. Leading up to the launch in June I'll be doing a few posts on the breast in history in an attempt to better understand our current views of the breast and what a healthier view might look like. Lots of interesting info to come!

Medieval There are numerous references in medieval and even earlier medicine to “pains in the breast” and tumors and some reference to treatment of them with herbs such as cleavers (Kress, 2017). The degree of male ownership of breasts during this period seemed to determine the degree to which they could be written about. Breast health in general was rarely if ever mentioned. When it entered the world of male doctors, it gained a few references. Yet while medieval men felt it uncouth to write about breast health, they were fine with shredding breasts to bits for sport with a popular medieval torture device (Loufbrouw, 2011). And this was written about extensively. On the other hand, women were not allowed “ownership” of their breasts. They existed solely for male pleasure with all but the poorest of women sending their newborns away from home to country wet-nurses for the first year or two of life. This equates to women being separated from the nourishing power of their own bodies and seeing their own power as something shameful to be shunned. And when women developed “breast bags” - early bras - to give them a bit of comfort or lift, men deemed them “indecent” (Loofbourow, 2011). Clearly this is different from today where *not* wearing a bra is considered indecent by some! In Medieval times any breast illness or cancer was attributed to an excess of "black bile" from an imbalance of the bodily humors.

Elizabethan Era During this time, women wore busks that flattened out their figure including the breasts. Some reference to this offering a means of birth control by stimulating miscarriage is mentioned. These busks were also seen as a means of masculinization under the misguided notion that a woman’s power lay in being more male. (Loofbourow, 2011).

The corset as a protective device embodies masculine associations; morally in danger of man, it is as if woman puts on the man over her vulnerable womanhood, which is, however, preserved — indeed exaggerated — beneath. The very act of hardening and stiffening herself, which is on one level defensive, becomes a militant form of transference to herself of masculine eroticism (in Loofbourow, 2011).

Rebecca Grace Andrews

Welcome! Here are my thoughts on herbalism, unschooling, autoimmune diseases, nature connectedness, homesteading, and sustainable choices, based on my graduate studies in herbalism, ecotherapy, and psychology and living the life that I love! Check out the website as well!